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Taxonomy |
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Javan Rhino |
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Specimens of Vietnam. Schaller et al. (1990, ORYX, 24:71) were 'shown the horn and a piece of skin' of a rhino killed in 1988 by a Stieng hunter in Bao Loc district (west Lam Dong Prov., i.e. in Cat Loc Reserve). The skin is entirely characteristic of Rhinoceros sondaicus. The horn differentiates the genera Rhinoceros and Dicerorhinus well. If Schaller et al. were at all familiar with rhinoceros morphology, this would have been adequate for identification.
In August, 1994, I was able to measure the partial skeleton of a rhino found dead in Lam Dong in 1978, and now displayed in a glass case in the Ministry of Forestry building, Hanoi. (a) The skull showed the features of Rhinoceros as opposed to Dicerorhinus, for example: nuchal surface slants forward; outline of nuchal surface, in rear view, widens markedly inferiorly; dorsal outline deeply concave; subaural fusion of postglenoid and posttympanic. In addition it showed the following feature diagnostic of R. sondaicus: premaxillae free from maxillae. (b) The skull showed features which tend to characterize the Vietnamese subspecies Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus (Groves & Gu?rin (1980, G?obios, 13, 2:199-208):
- Antorbita width 204, cf. subspecies means:
annamiticus 217.7 (n=3)
inermis 198.8 (n=5)
sondaicus 187.3 (n=15: Java)
188.8 (n=5: Sumatra)
- Ratio width to height of occiput 175.6, cf.:
annamiticus 181.0 (n=4)
inermis 165.0 (n=4)
sondaicus 186.0 (n=16: Java)
176.0 (n=5: Sumatra)
171.0 (n=4: Malaya)
Unfortunately the maxillary alveolar ridge was missing, so the low facial height of annamiticus could not be checked.
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Why the Cat Loc (Vietnam) rhinos are Javan
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